For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and
lose his own soul? Mark 8:36

I was reminded of this verse recently when the world paused to remember
the death of the ‘King of Rock & Roll’ Elvis Presley. Well, maybe it
wasn’t the whole world. I’m pretty sure there are at least a billion
people in
China who never gave Elvis’ death a moment’s thought.
But for those of us in the good old
USA who think the world revolves around us it was
almost like a day of mourning, or at least a national holiday.

I wasn’t a big Elvis fan growing up but just like every one else I
remember where I was when the announcement was made that the ‘King’ was
dead. My first thought was, “must have been drug related”. But soon
thereafter, even though I was not serving the Lord at that time, I began
to think of Mark 8:36 – What profit is there in gaining the whole world?
Where is the value in all that fame, money, and worldly honors? Here was
a man that had everything the world says is important and yet he came to
his end alone, sitting on a toilet, fat and drug addicted at the age of
42.

Unfortunately these kinds of wasted lives are all too common in our
celebrity crazed culture. But there is another kind of wasted life that,
on the surface isn’t quite as obvious. It is a life seen by the world as
being given totally to the service of mankind. The life of a
humanitarian or religious figure can be just as wasted as that of the
celebrity hedonist.

On Dec. 11, 1979, Mother Teresa, the "Saint of the Gutters," went to
Oslo. Dressed in her signature blue-bordered sari and
shod in sandals despite below-zero temperatures, the former Agnes
Bojaxhiu received that ultimate worldly accolade, the Nobel Peace Prize.
In her acceptance lecture, Teresa, whose Missionaries of Charity had
grown from a one-woman folly in
Calcutta in 1948 into a global beacon of
self-abnegating care, delivered the kind of message the world had come
to expect from her. "It is not enough for us to say, 'I love God, but I
do not love my neighbor,'" she said, since in dying on the Cross, God
had "[made] himself the hungry one — the naked one — the homeless one."
Jesus' hunger, she said, is what "you and I must find" and alleviate.
She condemned abortion and bemoaned youthful drug addiction in the West.
Finally, she suggested that the upcoming Christmas holiday should remind
the world "that radiating joy is real" because Christ is everywhere —
"Christ in our hearts, Christ in the poor we meet, Christ in the smile
we give and in the smile that we receive."

Yet less than three months earlier, in a letter to a spiritual
confidant, the Rev. Michael van der Peet, that is only now being made
public, she wrote with weary familiarity of a different Christ, an
absent one. "Jesus has a very special love for you," she assured Van der
Peet. "[But] as for me, the silence and the emptiness is so great, that
I look and do not see, — Listen and do not hear — the tongue moves [in
prayer] but does not speak ... I want you to pray for me — that I let
Him have [a] free hand."

Almost everyone in the world would agree that Mother Teresa was a living
saint. She gave her life in service to the least of those among us. She
took a vow of poverty in order to identify with the poorest of the poor.
She forsook all the comforts of modern life in order to minister as a
woman of faith in the poorest slums of
India and around the world. Surely this woman was
sent by God. Surely this woman who was so selfless in her life is now
occupying an honored place in God’s eternal kingdom.

Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied
in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done
many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew
you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Mat 7:22-23

Now we find out that all we thought we knew about Mother Teresa may not
be so. In a
Time magazine feature story we discover that Teresa herself never
had any assurance of her place in God’s kingdom. In letters heretofore
unpublished, Mother Teresa confides her lack of faith in a spiritual
confidant and mentor, Father Michael van der Peet.

These revelations have already been seized upon by atheists and skeptics
eager to prove that all religious thought is merely the imaginative
speculations of the human mind. Some in the religious community have
attempteed to prove just the opposite, that despite her inability to
‘feel the presence of God’ she was still a grand example of faith.

The real truth from all this should come as no surprise to any true
bible believing Christian. Mother Teresa did not feel the presence of
God because she was an idolater. She practiced an empty form of
religious ritual based on the vain traditions of men rather than the
truth of Gods word. She had a form of Godliness that had no real power
to save, heal or deliver from sin.

We never try to convert those who receive [aid from
Missionaries of Charity] to Christianity but in our work we bear
witness to the love of God's presence and if Catholics, Protestants,
Buddhists, or agnostics become for this better men -- simply better --
we will be satisfied.

It matters to the individual what church he belongs to. If that
individual thinks and believes that this is the only way to God for her
or him, this is the way God comes into their life -- his life.
If he does not know any other way and if he has no doubt so that he does
not need to search then this is his way to salvation."Life in the Spirit: Reflections, Meditations, and Prayers, pp.
81-82

I've always said we should help a Hindu become a better Hindu, a Muslim
become a better Muslim, a Catholic become a better Catholic"
Mother Teresa -- A Simple Pathp 31

Mother Teresa was a Catholic through and through. She worshipped Mary as
the mother of God and co-redeemer with Christ.

Mary ... is our patroness and our Mother, and she is always leading
us to Jesus."
Mother Teresa speech at the Worldwide retreat for Priests – Oct 1984

She worshiped the eucharist and in direct violation of Hebrews 9:28 and
10:14 taught that Christ must be offered over and over for the remission
of sins.

At the word of a priest, that little piece of bread becomes the body
of Christ, the Bread of Life.Mother Teresa speech at the Worldwide retreat for Priests – Oct 1984

She exalted men into the place of Christ.

When the priest is there, then can we have our altar and our
tabernacle and our Jesus. Only the priest put Jesus there for us. ...
Jesus wants to go there, but we cannot bring him unless you first give
him to us. This is why I love priests so much. We could never be what we
are and do the things we do without you priests who first bring Jesus to
us.

Mother Teresa speech at the Worldwide
retreat for Priests – Oct 1984

She believed in the Catholic doctrine of suffering in this life to atone
for ones sins.

The dying, the crippled, the mentally ill, the unwanted, the unloved
-- they are Jesus in disguise. ... [through the] poor people I have an
opportunity to be 24 hours a day with Jesus."

Every AIDS victim is Jesus in a pitiful disguise; Jesus is in
everyone.. ...Mother Teresa (12/4/89, Time magazine, pp. 11,13)

It is this last form of false religious belief that should trouble us
the most. Ask anyone about Mother Teresa’s work and they will tell you
that she did wonderful things to ease the suffering of the poor. Many
are convinced that she ran a crude hospital in the
Calcutta slums but the reality is quite different from
the myth.

There was never any hospital, never any medical care of any kind. What
she ran was a warehouse in which the terminally ill were given a cot, a
minimal amount of food, and were allowed to die surrounded by hundreds
of other poor desperate souls. There was no privacy, a communal open
toilet sufficed for all, friends and family were barred from visiting.
This was the result of her idolatrous Catholic belief system. A belief
system that denies the sufficiency of Christ’s death, burial, and
resurrection and instead teaches that man must atone for his own sins
either by suffering in this present life or suffering in purgatory in
the after life.

Though she took a vow of poverty, her organization raised millions (by
some accounts hundreds of millions) of dollars every year. No one is
quite sure how much money the Missionaries of Charity raised over the
years because Teresa was fiercely protective of not only how much was
raised but how it was spent. Even though Indian law requires all
charitable organizations to make their financial records open to the
public, somehow this was never enforced in relation to the Missionaries
of Charity. Many suspect that a great deal of the money raised
ostensibly to help the poor went directly to the Vatican Bank. It should
also be noted that while Teresa thought it noble for the poor to suffer
without medical care, whenever she herself needed medical care, a
private jet flew her to the world’s most exclusive clinics and
hospitals.

But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like
the wind, have taken us away. Isaiah 64:6

All of our human attempts at righteousness before God are as filthy
rags. We can never do enough. We can never make ourselves right
regardless of how many good works we do. Even if we truly give our lives
in the service of others it is all for naught if we think those works
are making a place for us in heaven. It is sad that this woman followed
such as false religious system thinking that her good works would usher
her into the presence of God. The only answer for us is to trust in the
righteousness which is in Christ Jesus.

If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye
are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore
the world hateth you. John 15:19

Mother Teresa was loved by the world. She was exalted as an example of
what a true Christian should be. She won the Nobel Peace prize and over
100 additional humanitarian awards. Even most Christians would argue
that the scripture above should not apply to this woman. I beg to
differ. Any time you see the world exalting any person in the religious
realm your discernment alarm should be on high alert. No true Christian
will ever be well received by the world and that applies to every arena
– religion, politics, business, every area of life. Any person who
receives honor from the world cannot be displaying the true character
and nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Revelation 13:11 describes a beast that arises from the earth. This
beast has two horns like a lamb. In other words he looks outwardly like
what the world thinks a Christian should look like but he speaks with
the mouth of the dragon. I cannot think of a better example of this
beast than Mother Teresa. She had all the outward attributes of a great
woman of God but as the above quotes prove she did not speak the words
of Christ. She spoke as the great dragon who deceives the whole world.

Friends, we are in an hour of great deception. Jesus said the false
teachers would do great signs and wonders to deceive if possible the
very elect. Don’t fall for it. Put God’s word first place in your life
and judge all things by that word. This is the only way to overcome when
you are judged.

God forbid: yea, let God be true, but every man a liar; as it
is written, That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest
overcome when thou art judged. Romans 3:4